I created this recipe years ago when I wanted to enhance a devil’s food cake mix I had on hand. My family loved it and it has since made regular appearances at our table for Sunday desserts and birthday parties alike. My kids nick-named it “Zebra Cake” when they were little because of the black and white stripes….and the name stuck. 🙂
Start by preheating your oven to 350*. Pour your cake mix and instant pudding mix in a mixing bowl and stir to blend. Add the eggs, oil and water and beat at low speed for a minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Then beat at 2 minutes at medium speed. The batter will be THICK.
Grease your bundt pan. To make sure it comes out of the pan without sticking, you will also want to dust it with a mixture of baking cocoa and flour. I used to just dust it with flour, so you can get away with just using flour, but just be mindful that there will be some white flour residue on the outside of your beautiful chocolate cake….which is really ok, because a lot of it will be covered with frosting. However, I recently found that there is no evidence of dusting the pan when you use this flour/cocoa mixture…the cake just looks like chocolate heaven! 🙂 I mix the flour and cocoa together first, brush my pan with a thin layer of melted butter (you don’t want it pooling up in the bottom), then pour in the cocoa mixture. Holding it over the sink, I turn the pan all different directions and shake gently to coat the entire inside surface with flour. I find with a bundt pan, I sometimes have to get creative and pour the excess cocoa our of the pan once the outside edges are coated and use a spoon to coat the center. Once it is completely coated, turn the pan upside down and tap it gently on the edge of the sink to let the loose cocoa/mixture fall into the sink.
Now pour in the batter and use the spatula to even it out. If you don’t want air bubbles in your cake (trust me….you don’t), hold the filled pan a few inches above the counter and drop it a few times to get the air bubbles out.
Bake it in the oven as directed by your cake mix, but DO NOT OVERBAKE. I test mine about 3 minutes before the instructions say it will be done by poking a toothpick into the middle between the center section and edges of the pan. When it comes out clean, it is done!
Remove from the oven and let it rest in the pan for 10-15 min. Shake it gently side to side and invert onto a cooling rack or serving platter. Cool completely before decorating.
Frost and decorate by pouring the fudge frosting on first using a larger spoon, letting it run down the sides, and then drizzling the cream cheese frosting on in stripes with a smaller spoon. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on immediately while the frosting is still sticky or they won’t stay.
Confession time: I often used ready-made fudge and cream cheese frosting for this recipe. If you prefer homemade frosting, feel free to use your favorite recipe or check our my recipes for Fudge Frosting and Cream Cheese Frosting! It’s delicious either way! Whichever frosting you use, you want the consistency to be thin enough that when you put a spoonful on the top, it will slowly run down the sides of the cake, but not so thin that most of it runs down the sides of the cake and you end up with very little on top. I usually warm the frosting in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and then test the consistency. If you need to, you can test the consistency of the frosting by turning a bowl or mug upside down, and pouring some frosting over the edge with a spoon to see how well it glides down the sides. If it is too thick, warm it in the microwave for 5 seconds at a time until it is at the desired consistency. If it’s too runny, put it in the fridge for a few minutes and test again.
You’re gonna love this cake! Your family is gonna love this cake! You can thank me later…
| Prep Time | 25 min |
| Cook Time | 30 min |
| Servings |
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- 1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
- 1 3.9 oz pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
- 4 large eggs
- 1 c water
- 1/3 c Vegetable Oil
- 1 T all purpose flour
- 1 T baking cocoa
- 1-1/2 c chocolate or fudge frosting Prepared or Homemade
- 3/4 c Cream Cheese frosting Prepared or Homemade
- 1/4 c semi sweet chocolate chips
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 350*.
- Beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil and water electric mixer on low until smooth. Beat on medium speed for 2 min, stirring and scraping bowl occasionally.
- Grease bundt pan. Mix together flour and baking cocoa and place into bundt pan. Shake pan gently to coat evenly on all sides. Turn pan upside down and shake excess flour mixture out into sink.
- Pour batter into bundt pan and distribute evenly.
- Cook for 30-35 min or as directed on package for bundt cake. Cool in pan 10-15 min. Shake softly side to side to loosen cake from pan. Remove from pan by inverting pan and releasing it onto rack or serving plate. Cool completely. Transfer to serving plate once cool, if cooling on rack.
- To frost, warm chocolate/fudge frosting in microwave for 5-10 seconds to thin consistency enough to drizzle over the cake. Pour chocolate frosting over first, covering top of cake and letting drip down sides. Warm cream cheese frosting for 5-10 seconds in the microwave to thin, then drizzle over the chocolate/fudge frosting in stripes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.
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